'Greek' exclusive First Look: The new season goes 'St. Elmo's Fire'

Image Credit: Danny Feld/ABC FamilyGreek has never been shy about its ’80s pop culture references, and this coming season, the show is going all out – dedicating itself to the spirit of St. Elmo’s Fire. And it’s not just the promo art (seen here in an exclusive first look) that pays deep homage to the Brat Pack classic: With the ABC Family show in its final ten episodes (alas!) and the season kicking off (at 9 p.m. on Jan. 3) with the graduation of the upperclassmen characters, much of the Greek gang will be dealing with the tricky transition to adulthood that wracked Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, and company with angst. “St. Elmo’s Fire captured that post-college experience, how lost people graduating are,” creator Sean Smith says. “The expectation with a show like ours is always that graduation has to be the end of the story, and I like subverting that. There is life after college, which can be just as interesting as life in college.”

To that end, the season will focus on Casey (Spencer Grammer) finding her way into law school at CRU, as you can see yourself in this exclusive clip of the premiere:

Casey will also struggle with her identity now that she’s a ZBZ alum instead of a member (beloved guest star Charisma Carpenter will return in the second episode to help with that). And Casey and Cappie (Scott Michael Foster) will continue to come to terms with their painful breakup. “She’s taking these steps toward her future, and he doesn’t seem to be able to do that,” Smith says. “If he always gets to be the kid in the relationship, someone has to be the grownup, and Casey doesn’t want to have to do that.” Nora Kirkpatrick will return as Casey’s uptight former rival, Katherine, who’s now her fellow law student; while Josh Randall (Ed) also guests as the dreamy law professor who catches one major female character’s eye. “We have some pretty awesome courtroom scenes that will put Law & Order to shame,” Smith jokes.

On the fraternity side, Rusty (Jacob Zachar) will vie for power at KT with the perpetually un-graduating Cappie and will become embroiled in a (realllly) surprising new romance. He’ll also come into his own as a mentor to a new pledge named Peter Parks (“also known as ‘Pledge Spidey,’” Smith says) played by Ned’s Declassified star Devon Werkheiser; even better, his dad, the illustrious KT alum Lasker Parkes (Wargames reference alert!) will be played by Weekend at Bernie’s star Jonathan Silverman for, yes, some extra ’80s cred.

So what do you think, PopWatchers? Are you excited for the new (final) season of Greek?